Grandparental co-residence and grandchild survival: the role of resource competition in a pre-industrial population

Simon Chapman, Mirkka Danielsbacka, Antti O Tanskanen, Mirkka Lahdenperä, Jenni Pettay and Virpi Lummaa

Behavioral Ecology, 2023, vol. 34, issue 3, 446-456

Abstract: Although grandparents are and have been important alloparents to their grandchildren, they are not necessarily only beneficial but can also compete with grandchildren over limited resources. Competition over parental care or other resources may exist especially if grandparents live in the same household with grandchildren and it can be dependent on grandchild age. By utilizing demographic data collected from historic population registers in Finland between 1761 and 1895 (study sample n = 4041) we investigate whether grandparents living in the same household with grandchildren are detrimental or beneficial for grandchild survival. Having a living but not co-residing grandmother or grandfather were both associated with better survival whereas having a co-resident grandfather was associated with lower chance to survive for infants (age

Keywords: Finland; grandchildren; grandmother hypothesis; grandparents; resource competition; sex specific reproductive strategies; three-generational household (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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